Free Republic

The AFL-CIO endorsed Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) to take over a Democratic National Committee (DNC) that was rocked by scandal during the 2016 campaign season. “Ellison meets the high standard working people expect from leaders of our political parties,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Thursday in a statement. “He is a proven leader who will focus on year-round grassroots organizing to deliver for working families across America. Under his leadership, the Democratic Party will embody the values that our members stand for every day.” Ellison is seen as an early frontrunner in the race for DNC chairman, having secured union...

In the wake of Donald Trump winning the presidency after a campaign that often targeted and scapegoated immigrants, Latinos and Muslims, the AFT has pledged to take concrete action to assist these groups, with a particular emphasis on assisting and defending undocumented students. AFT President Randi Weingarten said AFT will "do everything in our power to stop any kind of action against our immigrant families, our Muslim families, our Latino families and especially our undocumented students."Specifically, she said that the AFT will: Support cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and others as they reaffirm sanctuary status...

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, NEA President

WASHINGTON—In response to President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to lead the Department of Education, AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement:“The president-elect, in his selection of Betsy DeVos, has chosen the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of Education. “In nominating DeVos, Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America. “DeVos has no meaningful experience in the classroom or in our schools. The sum total of her involvement has been spending her family’s wealth in an effort to...

Dear Union Member:Thanksgiving is a holiday of solidarity—commemorating a short-lived moment when Pilgrims and Native Americans broke bread together at a common table. This Thanksgiving, America’s working people and our unions are committed to standing with each other—in solidarity. We are reminded this holiday season of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and most of all, freedom from fear.Thanksgiving is a holiday of plenty—a celebration of the bounty that hard work in America can and should bring. This election season we heard many promises of plenty—promises to create jobs, to raise wages, to...

'Hate Cannot Be the New Normal': Teachers, Working People in Unions, Faith and Civil Rights Leaders Urge President-Elect Trump to Condemn Hate Speech As the number of hate-related incidents has been escalating in the recent days following the 2016 election campaign marked by the extreme and hateful rhetoric of Donald Trump, working people in unions are calling on the president-elect to take a stand. During his acceptance speech, Trump said he would work to unite all working people.Working people are demanding that Trump commit to representing all of America’s people by "loudly, forcefully, unequivocally and consistently denouncing these acts and the...

Keith Ellison emerges as a top contender to lead the DNC in the fight against Trump, while Howard Dean and Martin O’Malley say they are considering bidsThe morning after election day was supposed to be one of reckoning for Republicans battered by internal strife over their unpopular nominee, Donald Trump. Instead, it was the Democrats who awoke to a harrowing new world. Hillary Clinton’s stunning defeat on Tuesday left the party leaderless and opened a struggle for control.“The Democratic establishment had their chance with this election,” Stephanie Taylor, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement....

No sugarcoating it. The national results are a disaster. A self-serving corporate huckster rode to victory on the jet fuel of racism, anti-immigrant xenophobia, sexism and demagoguery. In spite of Donald Trump’s pseudo-populism and claims to represent the working class, his victory is rooted in efforts to divide and undermine our communities.    We now begin a period where the most basic freedoms and protections will likely be under severe and concerted attack.   In light of the looming sea change in the federal government, the Texas AFL-CIO lays down this marker: You can be damn sure the Texas union movement...

Ohio is an important swing state in next week's presidential election, and if Donald Trump fails to win the state, his path toward victory is very narrow. That's why AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was in the state making sure that working people know how important their vote is. Here is some of the media coverage of Trumka's visit:Toledo Blade: "Before volunteers spent their time canvassing local neighborhoods to urge those to vote, which consisted of two three-hour shifts, Mr. Trumka, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), stopped by in support of Hillary Clinton...

The Clinton campaign privately fumed that one of its surrogates told supporters that Hillary Clinton planned to betray labor groups by adopting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal after the election, according to emails published by WikiLeaks. Labor Outreach Director Nikki Budzinski told senior campaign advisers on November 3, 2015 that labor leaders were complaining to her about Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D., Texas). The congresswoman, an early Clinton supporter, privately told supporters that Clinton had no intention of opposing the TPP free trade deal once she was president, according to a memo circulated by Budzinski after a meeting with AFL-CIO...

Ohio Senate candidate Ted Strickland joked about the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Monday, saying it came "at a good time" for union workers since he was unable to cast the deciding vote in a March case that ended up in a 4-4 deadlock. ... Strickland made the remarks in Cleveland, telling AFL-CIO members that Scalia's death "saved labor" from a terrible decision in the case, which could have dealt a blow to the ability of public-sector unions to collect fees from those who decide against joining the union and pay for collective bargaining activities. ... the...

Ground game and digital blitz to target millions of union households and allies In the final days before the election, the AFL-CIO will drive a powerful grassroots program and launch a digital ad blitz to union households and allies. The final stretch of the campaign is underlined by speaking with millions of voters at the doors and on the phones, delivering millions of mailers and a six-figure digital ad buy in battleground states.AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka began the countdown to election day with a new video message that makes the closing argument for Hillary Clinton.“The case for Hillary Clinton stands...

From:Amy.Dacey@seiu.org To: Andy.Stern@seiu.org, Anna.Burger@seiu.org, pbl@711sx.com, zschwartz@shangrila.us, douglas.york@soros.com, Michael.Vachon@soros.com more Date: 2007-09-22 00:24 Subject: Agenda and Logistical information for the September 27th NYC Meeting Thank you all for your patience as we have finalized the agenda and arrangements for the September 27th meeting in NYC. Please review the agenda and logistical information below.You will recieve a UPS overnight package on Tuesday morning with additional information to review prior to the meeting. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday. If you have any questions before then, please feel free to email me or contact me on my cell at 202-528-7492. Amy...

A new report finds that the United States fails to uphold the most basic rights of workers, particularly in the South, where some states "support or collude with employers to infringe upon workers’ rights to peaceful assembly and association." The report cited examples such as Tennessee officials’ opposition to unionization at a Volkswagen plant and the "government of Mississippi [which] touts the lack of unionization as a great benefit when courting potential employers."

At last week's presidential debate, America’s working women got a front-row seat to Donald Trump’s sexism. He repeatedly interrupted Hillary Clinton, a phenomenon too many working women can relate to, and repeated his claims that she doesn’t have the "presidential look" it takes to lead the United States. It seems like every day a new story from Trump’s past reveals more misogyny. Take the latest story out of his golf club in Palos Verdes, Calif., where Trump urged staff to fire unattractive hostesses and only hire "beautiful women."But it is his horrific, ongoing treatment of Alicia Machado that has captured...

It's been months since the passing of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but Democrats are still seemingly celebrating his death because it paves the way for their political purposes. At The Atlantic’s Washington Ideas Forum on Thursday, Labor Secretary Tom Perez casually noted that Scalia's death helped pave the way for union membership across the country. ... Unfortunately, Perez's comments are not isolated. In August, Ohio Senate Candidate Ted Strickland actually said “the death of Scalia saved labor” at an AFL-CIO event.

America’s coal miners have sacrificed much for our nation, and we have an obligation to support them and their families. Unlike Donald Trump who says he’s with us but has nothing to show beyond the bluster, Hillary Clinton has our back. She proved it with a detailed $30 billion plan to revitalize coal communities, while Donald Trump says ‘trust me.’ She is proving it again today with her support of the Miners Protection Act. From the bargaining table to the ballot box, working people know who stands with us, not by words, but action.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Bernie Sanders returned to the campaign trail on Monday and received the warmest welcome possible — a Labor Day breakfast, sponsored by the AFL-CIO, in the state that gave him one of his biggest primary wins. His mission: to help elect the Democrat who had run against him. "We are not talking about personalities," said Sanders, explaining why he'd endorsed Hillary Clinton and would be stumping against Donald Trump. "We are talking about which candidate will better represent the needs of the American people." Monday's speech was Sanders's first outside Vermont since the launch of his new...

Sick To Democrats, nothing matters but agenda. Hypocrisy doesn’t matter, hubris doesn’t matter, decency doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they seize power and use it to ram their ideology down the throats of others. We see it time and again. Like an army of three-year-olds, they’re happy as long as they get their way. If a few people die along the way, and that happens to help their cause, well, that’s just hunky dory.

Fred Gegare, who is challenging Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa in elections this month to head up the transport union, says that Hoffa and the US government are colluding to control the union by the use of intimidation. If true, the allegations could mean that 50 years of work trying to rid unions of mob influence has come to an end.  Hoffa and the Justice Department, says Gegare, have abused a decades-old consent decree, “which was once used to remove mobsters two decades ago, [but] is now being used to target [Hoffa’s] critics” through a “rogue investigative unit set up by...